Dragon Tamer
by IcyChills137
Summary: Oneshot request from Zolata on AO3 that I decided to turn into a multi chapter story. The EBF crew gets dragon mounts! Story is based around EBF4 canon.
1. Matt the Dragon Tamer

"Matt. I've known you for this long, and you have had many ideas, some smarter than others, but I think this is your stupidest so far." Natalie commented.

"Shhh! You'll wake them up, I'll die, you'll have to revive me, and it will be your fault!" Matt jabbed back playfully.

Somehow, Matt had gotten the great idea to attempt to tame one of the many dragons they had encountered. 'Their meat is too tough and bland to eat, what else are they good for!?" he had argued.

So here they were. Matt tip-toeing up to one of the sleeping beasts while Natalie, Lance, Anna, and NoLegs all stayed back at a decent distance.

"This cannot end well…" Anna said, shaking her head.

Lance scoffed, "Hey, at least we'll get a good show outta it.

NoLegs meowed in worry about his owner getting hurt, but didn't make any attempt to stop him.

Matt was about 10 feet away from the dragon now, hardly daring to breathe. He heard his teammates whispering behind him, but trying to block them out and focus on his prize. The giant scaly beast right in front of him. Now that he was so close, he was stuck on what to do. Jump immediately on its back? Should he weaken and debuff it a bit like when they captured other foes?

While he was paused in contemplation, he heard a mocking tone behind him.

"Ya chicken? Bawk Bawk! Ya gonna back out now? Bawk Bawk!" came the familiar tone of the gunner.

Matt gritted his teeth to resist yelling and risking waking the dragon up. Now that he was so close to it, he could see the individual scales and how shiny they were. How fluffy and soft the beard and neck of it was. He wanted to reach out and pet it, which he could do all the time once he tamed it.

"Eh. No time like the present!" Matt thought as he suddenly jumped on the dragon's long neck.

"MATT, YOU IDIOT!" Natalie screeched as the swordsman suddenly leaped onto the dragon, waking it up. She charged up a magic attack, prepared to hit the beast if it left so much of a scratch on Matt.

The dragon jolted awake and groggily whipped its head around to try and dislodge the unexpected and foreign weight from its neck.

Matt persisted, holding on for dear life as the dragon shook him back and forth wildly.

After that didn't work, the dragon tried scratching Matt off, while Matt narrowly avoided getting kicked by.

With how close the dragon's claws were to hitting Matt, Natalie was getting nervous, but she didn't want to risk throwing the attack and hitting Matt, so she held off on it.

As Matt's brain was getting shaken out, a pizza slice fell out of his pocket, which the dragon noticed and quickly gobbled up.

This gave Matt an idea.

"You want food, huh? Then go... FETCH!" Matt yelled as he chucked more food he had in his pockets. The dragon happily bounded after it like a hungry dog as Matt chucked more and more food for it to chase.

"Figures the dragon Matt chooses is a foodie," Lance said, rolling his eyes.

"So long as he doesn't run out of food and the dragon decides to eat him instead," Natalie mused.

This continued for a while before the gluttonous dragon finally slowed down and rested on the ground. Matt took this opportunity to slide off the dragon's back and stalk over to his friends with an uncharacteristically smug look on his face.

"Pretty good if I say so myse-" Matt boasted before being cut off by a sharp whack to the back of his head.

"MATT! That was stupidly dangerous! What would have happened if that pizza hadn't fallen out of your pocket! What if! What if…" Natalie scolded angrily before bursting into tears.

"Oh, geez Natz… I'm sorry for worrying you. I promise I won't do anything stupid like that again…" Matt comforted, hugging the sobbing mage.

"Bet he'll do something stupid within the next 24 hours," Lance whispered, nudging Anna.

"Pfft. I bet 12 hours!"

"You sure?"

"Guys, you aren't really helping here…" Matt murmured, glaring daggers.

"Sorry…" Anna and Lance both apologized.

After a brief moment of awkward silence, Anna spoke up.

"So… Whatcha going to name it?"

"Huh?" Matt questioned, lost in thought.

"The dragon! Now that you've tamed it, you've got to give it a name!" Anna said gleefully.

"I guess so…" Matt trailed off to glance at his new scaly friend.

The golden color and the slightly slimy looking texture, although in reality it was cold and smooth, reminded him of homemade Macaroni and Cheese.

"Hmm… How about Macaroni!" Matt exclaimed.

This produced a giggle from Natalie, who was still curled up on his lap.

"Macaroni? Really Matt?" the mage questioned, trying to suppress her giggles, "I bet if the dragon was awake and understood English, it would be offended at such a silly name."

"I-I! B-but!" Matt sputtered indignantly, "I mean, it was tamed with food! And I like food! A food name is perfect!"

"Hm… How about Mac for short?" Anna offered.

"Sure! Macaroni, or Mac, it is!" Matt whooped while looking at the dragon.

The dragon stared back with a half-lidded gaze, likely stuffed from its free meal. It yawned, showing off its large maw and wicked teeth, before rolling over and promptly falling asleep.

Matt chuckled at the sight before his stomach growled loudly.

"Uh… You guys don't happen to have any extra food on you, do ya?"


	2. Natalie the Dragon Tamer

"I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this." Natalie mumbled to herself as she laced up her lava boots.

"It's just a Dragon. That can breathe fire. And could possibly burn you to a crisp if you aren't paying attention." She finished lacing up her other boot and took a big breath to calm herself. In and out. In and out.

Once she wasn't borderline hyperventilating, she took a tentative step onto the lava. Why did Matt convince her to do this? They had been traveling around on Mac to get places easier, but he had a bit of trouble carrying them all 4 members of the crew plus NoLegs at once. Mac couldn't fit through the cave entrance where the new dragon lay, do Matt and NoLegs decided to stay behind to keep him out of trouble. Probably. Maybe it would end up being the other way around. Anna and Lance promised to tell the missing party members every detail of Natz taming her new mount.

She hissed at the suddenly searing heat on her foot. The lava boots were supposed to block out most of the heat, but they couldn't block 100% of it.

She glanced at the beast snoozing half submerged in the lava. The sharp horns lining its crest looked like they could do some real damage if it tried to headbutt you.

She had faced them before and had defeated them. Why was she so nervous?

She slowly stepped out, wincing at the pain of every step. She paused to glance back at her friends. Anna gave her a thumbs up while Lance had a camera ready to record her success or failure. Where did he even keep that camera? She never noticed him carrying it around and she didn't take him for liking photography. He certainly was shrouded in mystery.

She sighed and started taking baby steps towards the dragon, doing her best to muffle her cries of pain with each one, even if it wasn't that bad. As she neared the beast, she suddenly realized why Matt had paused so suddenly when taming Matt. Fighting them is fine and she never got that close to them herself. Walking up to one while it was sleeping was a different story. What if it woke up suddenly and was much more aggressive than Matt's? What if it killed her? Would her teammates be able to revive her? Did they stock up on coffee before arriving? How would they get out here if she had the lava boots? In and out. In and out.

While she was panicking and trying not to pass out, she never heard Anna and Lance's warning cries. Nor did she notice a certain red muzzle coming closer and closer. Only once the snout was right in front of her face did she come out of her daze and her friends' panicked voices finally register. She stared and stumbled back, just barely catching herself before she plummeted into the lava. Now that the dragon was awake and right in her face she didn't worry about keeping her voice down.

"G-guys?" She hated how her voice wavered, "Wh-what do I d-do?"

She stood there paralyzed and, by the lack of a response, she assumed her friends were as well. The dragon simply sat there and cocked its head to the side and blinked.

"G-guys? I could really use some help here!" She called out in alarm.

Still no response.

Were they just too scared to talk? Did they flee? Did her friends abandon her for their own safety? She couldn't risk looking in case the dragon took the opportunity to strike. Then the dragon did the unthinkable.

It slowly moved its head closer to her, causing the mage to panic once again. She closed her eyes, shielded her face with her arms and prepared for the worst. She held her breath, awaiting the pain of the dragon digging into her flesh.

…

But it never came.

Instead of teeth tearing into her, she felt them slightly scrape her back, not even digging into her skin, and grip onto the back of her dress.

"Wha-" she questioned as she dared to crack her eyelids open before she felt herself gingerly being lifted into the air.

She found herself set on the back of the dragon. She marveled at the pleasant warmth of it and dragged her hand across its scales. The dragon started rumbling almost like… a cat? Was it... purring? She giggled and glanced back at the shore of the lava and saw Anna and Lance standing there. Both of their mouths were hanging open and their eyes were wide.

"Heh… I-I did it! I tamed a dragon!" She yelled in triumph and realization.

"Oh. My. Godcat, Natz…" Anna gasped.

The dragon, noticing Natalie's attention focused on the other two humans, started lumbering them to it.

Anna and Lance flinched at the beast suddenly coming towards them, while Natalie continued to observe the dragon's appearance. She continued to marvel at the comforting warmth it gave off and how the muscles bunched and released as it walked.

"So," Natalie hummed as she approached the shore, "What now?"

"Well… for starters we should find Matt and tell him about this…" Lance eyed the dragon. "Experience…"

The dragon huffed and turned its snout up at that comment.

Natalie patted the dragon calmly before wondering aloud, "I wonder how… sentient these dragons are. We just kinda assume all the foes we come across are dumb idiots killing things without reason but may-"

"Gonna stop you there Natz." Lance interrupted, "Don't need to get all philosophical and have an existential crisis here."

"I was not!" Natalie gasped, feigning offense, "But yeah, we should find Matt."

"To Matt!" She yelled pointing, while the dragon started lumbering towards the exit, Lance and Anna pausing a second before following Natalie and the dragon.


	3. Bonus Chapter

"Holy Godcat you actually did it!" Matt yelled in disbelief.

"What, did you think I wouldn't be able to?"

"Nah, I just thought you would chicken out" Matt teased, which earned him a sharp glare.

"K-kidding, kidding!"

"So what are you going to name it?" Anna asked.

Lance groaned, "This again?"

"You can't just name one dragon and not name the other! That would be favoritism!" Anna shot back.

"Ahem!" Natalie coughed before it could escalate further. "I think I'll name her… Sasha."

"Seriously? Sasha?" Lance scoffed.

Natalie put her hands on her hips, "Why? What's wrong with Sasha?"

"Nothing, it's just… girly!"

As soon as he finished his statement, the dragon shot a blaze of fire, singeing Lance's hair.

"Gah! Okay, okay you're a girl and the name is fine!" Lance hissed, patting his hair to put out the embers.

Natalie laughed. "Guess you like the name, huh?"

The dragon nuzzled her in response.

"So, we gonna introduce the dragons to each other?" Natalie wondered.

"Yeah, let's do that!" Matt responded excitedly before giving a shrill whistle.

Everyone looked around in confusion before a loud flapping was heard and Mac flew down in all his golden glory.

"You've trained him already?" Natalie asked.

"What else did we have to do while we were waiting? You guys took forever!"

"We didn't take that long!"

"Yes you did!"

"Did not!"

"Did t-"

"Uh… guys…? The dragons?" Anna warned.

While they had been bickering, the dragons had noticed and approached each other.

"Oh shoot oh shoot oh shoot-" Natalie whimpered.

The dragons went towards each other and paced around each other. The party watched in nervousness. What would they do? Would they fight? Would they not fight but just hate each other and never get along?

While the Natalie was inwardly freaking out and the rest of the team hesitated, the dragons slowly approached each other...

Sniffed each other…

And then Mac lightly touched Sasha on the snout.

Natalie blinked, "Did... Did he just… boop her?"

Sasha reeled back slightly at the contact and blinked rapidly while Mac made a noise that could be classified as a laugh. Mac suddenly leaned back and lept forward, claws outstretched. Sasha quickly stepped to the side, causing Mac to smack into a tree. Mac jumped back up with barely a scratch and hopped back over and tried to boop her again. They started chasing each other in a circle.

This happened for a while before Natalie looked around, "Hey, uh… Where's NoLegs? I don't think I've seen him since we got out of the cave…"

Speak of the devil, NoLegs hopped out of the woods with a mouthful of sticks. He went over to the team and dropped the sticks, looked over at the dragons chasing each other and joined them, weaving in and out of their legs to avoid getting crushed.

Anna sighed, "Well… at least they're not fighting?"

"I guess you're right," Natalie trailed off, "Hey, I wonder why Nolegs brought us a bunch of sticks? Does he want to play fetch? I thought that was a dog thing."

Anna giggled, "Pfft, maybe he's secretly a dog!"

"Nah, it's probably cuz it's getting dark out. We need to make a fire," Lance commented dully.

Natalie glanced towards the horizon. "Aww, look at the pretty sunset!"

"Yeah, yeah. Look at the pretty sunset while we all freeze. Get some rocks for the pit will ya? Don't want to ruin your 'precious woods' with a forest fire," Lance snapped.

Anna stuck her tongue out at the gunner but her and Natalie did as they were told. Meanwhile, Lance arranged the sticks and brought out matches he used to light his cigarettes. Natalie and Anna returned and placed the rocks they obtained around the sticks while Lance tried to light the matches.

"Dud," he said as the match fizzled out too quickly to light the sticks.

Lance furrowed his brow, "Dang, another dud," he tossed the dead matches into the pile of sticks, "Looks like those were the only ones left in the box. Might have another pack somewhere."

Lance walked away to search for another pack while Matt sat down in the spot the gunner had been crouching.

"He does realize we could use magic to light it, right?" Matt chuckled, "But hey, maybe you could try and get Sasha to light it. Get some good ol' bonding time in."

Natalie looked around for her dragon and tried to suppress her laughter when she saw the situation she was in. Mac and managed to pin her down and was licking her face like a dog, and Nolegs had joined him. They had been going at this for who knows how long and Sasha was just sitting there, likely having given up and accepting her fate.

"Hey, Sasha!" Natalie called, "Can you come here? I need a favor!"

The dragon's captors looked up, distracted by the sudden noise and Sasha used the opportunity to push Mac off and quickly trot over to her.

Natalie stroked her muzzle a few time before motioning towards the pathetic pile of sticks.

"Can you light this? We don't need a blaze, just like… an ember would do fine."

The beast looked to her master to the sticks and plopped down, opened her mouth…

And breathed out a single ember that landed harmlessly on the wood.

"...Smart-aleck…" Natalie muttered, "You know what I meant. Enough to start a campfire, but not enough to set the whole forest on fire."

Sasha did as she was told and curled up a few feet away. The rest of the crew organized themselves around the warm dragon, Matt and Anna leaning against her side and Natalie sprawled on top. Mac and Nolegs eventually noticed and situated themselves as well. Just in time for Lance to come back over.

"So it took me a bit, but I found anoth-" he trailed off as he noticed the blazing fire and his friends dozing off. Anna was the only one still mostly awake and she called out to the gunner.

"Finally decided to join the party, huh?"

Lance scowled and tossed the now useless matches behind him and walked over to the heap of people, dragons, and cat. He hesitated before sitting down against the dragon to Anna's left —Matt was asleep on Anna's right with his head on her shoulder— a bit farther down. He was surprised at how warm the dragon was and with the combined soft flickering and warmth from the fire, he almost immediately felt his eyes get heavy. Blankets and pillows were overrated anyways.

Natalie watched the whole ordeal from her perch on her dragon's back with half-lidded eyes. She felt a soft and furry body plop against her and started stroking NoLegs, his purrs further pulling her into a deep sleep.


End file.
